It seems the powers that be, or mother nature, or…some entity had it out for us in the 1930s. I always marveled at how the Stock Market Crash and The Great Depression weren’t enough karmic punishment, (for what I don’t know!) but there was The Dust Bowl to make things even worse. Now as I’m…

What is so funny? I have solved the mystery! Friday, September 16th, 1938 Emmy, Vi, and I laughed till we were silly this afternoon over sea vegetable pills Emmy brought to give her energy. Friday night seems to be a steady going out one for Jakey. Wish he would include me once in a while. …

She has such a good time when she is in Vermont with Ernie. This summer, Babu visits at the end of August through the beginning of September for almost two weeks. She writes about her hesitation to leave and her relief to be home, but in the middle there certainly is a lot of fun. …

I’ve spoken before about the ghosts in these pages. About how the majority of the people, major roles and walk on parts a like, are no longer here. This is the vertigo of looking into the past and getting to know those there. It’s difficult to say but the Babu of those pages is a…

I don’t remember if I told you, but Babu saw the Hindenburg. Not the explosion, but it during flight. Here is the passage: Friday, October 9th, 1936 Saw “big Broadcast of 1937” and “Desert Gold.” Woke up this morning to the siren of fire trucks. Next door at the Partyka’s their oil got on fire. …

I ordered seedlings from a community organization I love called Gardening the Community in Springfield, MA and after I went to pick them up I decided to place them all – 153 of them! – on Babu’s kitchen table to she could see them. Then I waited for her to wake up from a nap…

I began a post today, a post I’ve been writing for the last hour, that intended to make the world understand the absolute insanity I put up with. It also attempted to purge and cathart, something I still drastically need. But trash talking members of this family is something I have promised myself I wouldn’t…

Remember the Nee Wah formal last month? Oh wait. I always do that. I mean, the Nee Wah formal of January, 1939. Since I just transcribed February of 1939 I look at the month before as “last month.” The Nee Wah formal is this post here. Go ahead, click on it. I updated the post!…

February was a cute month full of Babu’s sass and shut downs. I’ve been in the habit of transcribing across the table from her as she eats breakfast and sometimes it is just too much to read what she has written at 20 years old and look up and see her ever so innocent 99…

Once I finally lowered the phone and muted the screen’s glow in the covers, after ceasing my scrolls trough “the feed,” once I was done refreshing my inbox, coloring in hearts on other people’s pictures, once I thought maybe now I can sleep, I began to hear it. It sounded like music was playing, On…

In a way, I have become the gatekeeper of Babu’s memories. I don’t relish the responsibility. On her own, her memories both have abandoned her and hold her hostage. There is a lot she can no longer remember and even less she talks about and focuses on. Some things she obsesses about. One thing in…

Sometimes, not a lot happens to Babu in a month’s time. (Think about what a diary of mine would like like, if I ever wrote in one!) January, 1939 is a busy one, however. It was busy with small details that I could have easily over looked, like these two sentences somewhere midmonth: Mother had…

There is a moment I want to write about for one reason and one reason only. I want to preserve it. My sister, Nicole, now comes over with her babies once a week to visit Babu. Jade is now almost 6 and Harper is now almost 3. (GAWD LORT IN HEAVEN! How did that happen?)…

I am participating in Camp Nanowrimo this month. What this is a mini – if you choose it to be – version of Nanowrimo. Nanowrimo stands for National Novel Writing Month and it’s a webpage, an online group, an organization, a movement! that inspires and supports writers to complete the rough draft of a novel…

The beginning to the New Year comes whether you are ready or not. This New Year’s day drops in on Babu alone. Got a book and an apple and a bed so I’m hopping to it – Her New Year’s night and day could have been worse. It was for Frank, who begins the new…

Writing about ice skating, getting colds, and “The holidays” in the summer heat is always ill fitting, but here it is, as chronology dictates: December, 1938! The end of another year. To catch everyone up and center ourselves, since I have been away for a few days: By this time in 1938: She has graduated…

Well here they are. You gave me dates and now I will tell you what was happening in the world on that day in the mid 1930s. Actually, better yet, I will tell you what was happening in Babu’s world on that date. Rabbit Patch Diary asked for March 15th 1935: Friday, March 15, 1935…

My life post teaching career has shifted incrementally but consistently since the big change. I’m not sure if it’s like aftershocks or more like when something settles back down after really being tossed around. It’s been exactly a year. Today is the last day of school and I never went back once, not to visit…